In one of the first quantifications of fake news in Europe, the authors found that, in France and Italy, users generally spend less time on selected fake news websites than they do on those of genuine media outlets.

Fake news has a relatively large audience, but it went deep with only a small portion of Americans. Fact-checkers also draw large audiences, but it doesn’t seem to bring the corrections to those who most need to read them.

Attaching warnings to stories on social media platforms like Facebook that have been debunked by fact-checkers modestly decreases their perceived accuracy while increasing the perceived validity of untagged fake stories.

It’s often not enough for fact-checkers to simply correct online misinformation — they also have to create detailed counter-messages and alternative narratives if they want to change their audiences’ minds.